Improvement in power-looms



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

XVILLIAMGRAIOHEN AND C. HOFFMAN, OF CLINTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN POWER-LOONIS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 34,14l dated January 14, 1862.

T0 all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that we, WILLIAM GEAICHEN and CHARLES HOFFMAN, both of Clinton, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Filling Stop-Motion for Power-Looms; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a transverse vertical section of a loom having ourinvention applied. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same, taken in the plane indicated by the line a: in Figs. l and 2, and showing` the parts in front of the said plane. Fig. 3 is a plan of the same. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the grids.

Similar letters and numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

This stop-motion is designed more particularly for looms in which two or more shuttles are employed either with rising-and-falling or, as they are called, dropshuttle boxes, or with rotating shuttle-boxes. It is composed in part of feeling-forks attached to thebreastbeam of the loom and grids attached to the lay in some degree like the fork and grid used in the ordinary filling stop-motion of plain looms, but a fork and a grid are used on each side of the loom instead of on one side only.

One feature of the invention consists in the peculiar construction of and mode of applying and operating the grids, whereby they are made to act only upon the thread of the shuttle that is in operation and passing into one of the boxes and not upon the threads of the shuttle or shuttles that are at rest in the boxes.

Another feature consists in an improved mode of combining one of the feeling-forks with the lever by which the belt-shifter is thrown out of its notch to throw the loom out of gear when the filling has broken or given out; and the last feature consists in an improved positive stop mechanism to stop the loom after it is thrown out of gear.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention, we will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A A are the two grids, arranged at equal distances from the center of the loom, near the shuttle-boxes. These grids, instead of being simple at comb-like devices and secured rigidly to the lay or reed, as in the ordinary stop-motion of plain looms, are made with a long forward step-like projection aon the front and lower part of every one of the dents l) b, and below the said projections each has a stem d, fitted to slide up and down in one of two suitable guides c c, attached to the back of the lay P, which is cut out in such manner for the reception of the projections a d as to permit the upper parts of the said projections to come flush with or below the face of the raceway. The said projections a a are of a length to extend about or nearly halfway across the raceway, and the upper parts of the dents are at the back of the raceway in the position occupied by the iixed dents of the plain loom-lling stop-motion.

The two stems CZ d have holes cut in them for the reception of the ends of the two arms e e of a horizontal rock-shaft B, which is arranged parallel with the lay and reed in bearings 'Lt u, secured to the bottom of the lay A, and to this shaft there is applied a coiled spring f, which acts upon the said shaft to depress the said arms and draw down the grids to the lowest position permitted-that is to say, with the tops of the projections a a iiush with or just below the face of the raceway. The rock-shaft B is also furnished with another arm g, which is beveled in front at its extremity, as shown in Fig. l, to work in contact with a fixed stud h, carried by an arm C, which is bolted firmly to the breast-beam D, the said stud being so arranged and the arm g being so adj usted on the rock-shaft that at that stage in the forward movement of the lay when the operating-shuttle has passed over the projections a ct of either grid in its entrance intoashuttle-box on the same side of the loom the said arm comes in contact with the said stud, and the continued forward movement of the lay, with the said arm g in contact with the said stud 72., causes the said arm to be thrown back relatively to the lay, and so causes the rock-shaft to receive such a movement as to raise its arms e e, and so raise the two grids, thereby causing the projections ct a of the grid over which the shuttle has just passed to raise up the thread of the said shuttle to a positionto be pressed in the usual manner by the upper parts of the dents b b against the prongs orteeth i z' of its corresponding fork. The 'feeling-forks are arranged in more elevated positions than that of the common plain loom-filling stop-motion,

and would not catch the thread without its being thus raised. By thus placing the feelin g-forks in more elevated positions and constructing and operating the grids as above described the thread from the operatingshuttle is made to act upon the forks; but the threads from the shuttles which are at rest are prevented from acting upon them, the latter threads leading from the cloth to the shuttle box or boxes being so far toward the front of the loom as to be in no danger of getting over the tops by the projections a a, of the grids before the latter commence rising and hanging looselyT in such low positions that by the time the lay has moved far enough forward for the projections to touch them the tops of the projections are too high for the said threads to pass over. The tops of the projections c a rise to a little above the level at which the points of the teeth of the feeling-forks hang when at rest. The stud h and the bevel on the arm g are so formed that the grids arrive at the highest position just before the upper parts of the dents b ZJ have arrived between the prongs z' 1l of the feeling-forks. As the lay moves back and the arm g passes back over the stud, the grids are depressed by the action of the spring f upon the rock-shaft B. The two feeling-forks constitute portion of the two levers E E', like the lever to which the feeling-fork of the ordinary plain loomilling stop-motion are attached; but instead of being like that lever attached by its fulcrum-pin to the lever which acts upon the shipper these levers are hung on fixed fulcrum-pinsjj, carried by bent standards F F bolted to the breast-beam. The front end of the lever E, which is at the right side of the loom, is attached by a light rod or wire 7c to a bent lever G, which is arranged to swing upward and downward on a fulcruln-pivot formed upon the extremity of the inner arm of the horizontally-movin g lever H, which works on a fulcruin m on the top of the breastbeam, and Whose outer arm is arranged to operate upon the shipper I. The lever H has a spring n applied to it in such manner as to throw forward the outer end to such a position against a fixed stop 10, secured in the lay, that it will not interfere with the shipper While in the notch o, in which it is locked to keep the loom in gear. The pressure of the filling-thread against the fork of the lever E by the grid A as the shuttle enters -a box at the right side of the loom causes the front end of that lever to be lifted, and so causes the said lever, by the aid of the rod la, to raise up the lever G to such a height that its bent portion 5, which projects downward behind the breast-beam, will not be touched by a stud p, which is secured to and projects from the front of the lay, and hence when the filling-thread is in place the lever H is left undisturbed; but in case of the filling-thread having broken or given out the fork of E, not being acted upon, leaves the lever G at rest upon a rest q, provided for it on the breastbeam, and leaves the portion 5 of the latter lever in a position to be struck by the stud p in the lay, which pushes that lever forward longitudinallj7 and so forces back the inner arm of the lever H, to which it is attached. and at the saine time throws back the outer end thereof against the shipper and throws it out of the notch o and throws the loom out of gear.

The fork of the lever E' at the left side of the loom is combined with the lever G to produce the same results above mentioned by means of two very light levers L M working on fulcra r S, secured in the back of the breast beam, and a light rod or wire link t, which connects the lever M with the said lever E. The two levers L M are arranged end to end and connected at their adjacent or inner ends, and when the outer end of thc lever M is raised by the action of the filling-thread against the fork of E the inner end of M depresses the corresponding end of L and causes the outer end of the latter to rise in contact with and lift the lever G in the same manner in which it has been described to be lifted by the lever E and rod k. When the filling gives ont or breaks as the shuttle is passing to the left side'of the loom, the lever E is undisturbed and G is not lifted, but the stud p comes into operation on the lever G and the loom is thrown out of gear, as before described.

In using the terms right and left in the above description we mean with reference to the front of the loom and not with reference to Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings, in which the positions are the reverse of what we have described, owing to those views both being seen from the back of the loom.

The positive stop mechanism consists, principally, of a stop-wheel Q on the ordinary cam-shaft R of the loom, a lever S, arranged below the said wheel, an upright rod T, connected with the lever S, and a stop-piece fu, projecting in a rearward direction from the lever H. The rod T is iitted to guides lw w, attached to the breast-beam and lower front rail of the loom, and it occupies such a position that it may be covered by the stop-piece c of the lever H when thelatter is held by the spring n to the position in which it allows the shipper-lever to remain in the notch 0. The said rod has applied to it a spiral spring y, which tends toforce it upward against or beyond the said stop @,and the lower end ofthe said rod is connected with the front end of the lever S. The rear end of this lever S rests in a shoe U, secured to the floor, and abuts against an india-rubber spring z, placed in the said shoe. Directly below the stop-wheel Q the said lever S is provided with a horn 6, which projects from the upper part of the said lever in a forward direction toward the faces of the stops 7 7 on the said wheel. The jointpin connecting the rod T and lever S is also connected by a link 8 with a foot-treadle V, which before starting the loom is pressed down to bring the horn 6 of the lever out of reach of the stops 7 7 of the wheel R and bring the top of the rod T below the stop U of the lever H, in which condition the parts are locked by the stop-piece 'u being moved over the top of the rod by the action of the spring 'n upon the said lever H, and in which condition they remain until the lever H is acted upon, as before described, to throw the loom out of gear. By this last-mentioned action the stop o is moved off the rod T,which is then allowed to be moved upward by the spring y,

Awhich then by its action upon the said rod draws up the front end of the lever S and raises the horn 6 high enough to meet the iirst of the stops 7 7 of the Wheel Q, which comes round to it, and thereby at once to stop the revolution of the said wheel and its shaft, and consequently to stop the loom in a posit-ive manner. When the stoppage tak es place, the

spring z prevents any very violent concussion of the several parts of the loom.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The grids A A constructed with projections ct a in front of the lower parts of their dentsb b, applied in guides formed in or upon or attached to the lay and having a risingand-falling motion, substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

2. Operating the so-constructed grids by means of a rock-shaft B, arms e e g, a spring f, and a fixed stud h, the whole applied, arranged, and combined substantially as herein specified.

3. The feeling-fork lever E, working on a iixed fulcrum and combined with the horizontally-moving lever H, which acts on the beltshipper by means of a bent lever G, attached to the said lever H and connected with E, substantially as herein speciiied.

4. Thepositive stop-motion composed of the stoppiece u on the lever H, the rod T, the spring fg, the lever S, and stop-wheel Q, and spring z, the whole arranged, combined, and operating substantially as and for the purpose herein specified.

WM. GRAICHEN. CHARLES HOFFMAN. Witnesses:

' T. GRAICHEN,

T. TIMMERMAN. 

